Malignant spirits
by Pyjamapants
Summary: When Cody falls out with Zack, he meets a malignant spirit that wants him for her own hidden agenda...
1. Chapter 1

"Why don't you just die?" Zack screamed. "No one _really_ likes you, they just pretend because they feel sorry for you!" Zack didn't care that Cody was crying his eyes out, or that the whole class was staring – in fact, he barely noticed.

"Mom said I'm just as good as you…' Cody said in a small voice, amid his sniffled sobs. Zack snorted derisively.

"Yeah? At what – being a loser?" Cody stood up, tears still streaming down his blotchy face. He picked up his bags and ran out of the classroom, not daring to look anyone in the eye.

Cody ran into the boys' toilets and wept silently for the next ten minutes. No one followed him. _Perhaps they don't like me…_ Cody thought dumbly when he ran out of tears to shed. Overcome by a sudden surge of adrenaline, Cody smashed his fist into the mirror on the wall. It splintered and cracked, sending shards of glass deep into his hand.

When Cody turned back to the door, he saw a dark haired girl about his own age. "This is the boys' toilets," Cody said quietly, the anger at his brother still clear in his voice.

"You're hurt!" the girl said, staring at his hand. "You need to see the nurse!" Blood dripped silently as Cody simply stood there. It occurred to him that this girl was actually quite attractive. She moved toward Cody and took his bleeding hand. Cody gulped. She was far more than attractive.

"It's not that bad," she said.

"Wha-…"

"Your hand," she smiled. Cody suddenly remembered he was in a bad mood. He stormed out of the toilets without a second glance at the girl, and headed begrudgingly in the direction of the nurse's office.

"Holy Hell!" the nurse cried when she saw his hand. "What the hell d'you think you were doing, boy?" Cody simply scowled as he allowed his hand to be cleaned up. "You're lucky, they're very clean cuts. She bandaged up his hand and sent him on his way, just as the bell went.

Cody decided to walk home rather than get the bus, as he didn't think he could face the people on the bus. After three hours and several detours to avoid some dodgy looking guys, Cody arrived back at the Tipton.

"Ah, Cody!" Mr Moseby said, strolling up to whom he thought was the lesser of two evils. Cody barely restrained himself from slugging him in the gut – a three hour ramble in the pouring rain can dampen anyone's spirits, especially if they've cut open their hand and been told to die by their twin. Cody stepped into the elevator, and immediately pressed the button to shut the door.

"Hello again," the girl said, Cody just grimaced. "You weren't on the bus, Cody!" she scolded.

"How the hell do you know my name?" he snarled.

"Who doesn't? I'm Kay, by the way."

"Well, _Kay,_ I'm afraid-…" Kay grabbed Cody by the shoulders and pulled him into a deep kiss.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing?" Cody yelled, as the doors opened to the very surprised face of Mr Moseby. Kay slipped out under Moseby's arm, as he turned on Cody.

"I sometimes ask myself that very question," Moseby said, "but right now I am asking you not to traipse mud through my lobby!"

"Bite me." Cody pushed Moseby out of the elevator and quickly pressed the button. As the elevator ascended to his floor, he thought about how he had spoken to Kay – perhaps he had been too hard on her…oh well, nevermind.

**A/N: Sorry it's so short, hopefully the next chapter will be longer...**


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up to hear Cody sobbing into his pillow. What a wimp. It's his own fault, and he knows it. It's not my fault…it's not…is it? I groaned and got up. I contemplated going over and saying sorry, but that would mean giving in. I went to have a shower, and when I returned, the sobbing had stopped.

I tried to get some sleep after that, but my dreams were filled with things that don't bear thinking about. I could hear Cody muttering in his sleep, which didn't help much, but nevertheless, I managed to get to sleep in the end.

The next morning, I got up earlier than Cody, which was a first. I headed downstairs after a moment, glad that I had cooled off since the day before. Of course, nothing I'd said was true, and surely Cody didn't take any of it seriously, did he?

Zack was still downstairs when Cody woke up, his face stained with tears from the night before. Cody was feeling slightly better since he'd…gotten Zack mad. He stood and wandered around the empty suite aimlessly, unsure what he would do. He could find Zack and say sorry, but that would mean giving in.

Cody poured himself some cereal, and chewed it absentmindedly, not noticing how vile it tasted. He turned his head slightly and found that he was not alone.

"Kay! What the hell are you doing here?" Cody cried. "How did you get in?" He was suddenly very aware that he was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and a shirt.

"That doesn't really matter now, does it?" Kay said softly, resting her hand on Cody's knee. Having calmed down enough since the night before, Cody didn't push her away. He blushed bright crimson as Kay moved slowly toward him and stared into his eyes with her own dark pools.

Cody marvelled at the colour of her enchanting eyes. They didn't seem to be any colour at all, yet they also seemed to be made of every colour imaginable. "Are you just going to sit there or what?" She ran her hand up his leg, and he leaned in close. Just as their lips were about to meet, Carrie burst through the door.

Cody's eyes snapped open. It had been a dream…just a dream. He looked across to the clock beside his bed. It read 10:30.

I was standing at the candy counter, minding my own business, when Cody came along, wearing a revolting red sweater vest. "Hey sweet thang!" I called to Maddie, completely ignoring my twin. Cody smirked evilly, and I knew exactly what was going through his head.

"Don't go there," I warned. Cody opened his mouth to speak with a wicked grin on his face.

"Hey, Maddie, wanna know a secret?" he said, still smirking.

"Don't you _dare!_"

"Zack ha-…" Cody started, but I cut him short, leaping at my twin in fury. Surely he wouldn't dare – _he wouldn't!_ Apparently, he would. I chased him around the lobby until he ran into an elevator. I took the next one, and ran into the suite after him.

Cody got up slowly, and put on his favourite red sweater vest, thinking about his weird dream. He'd barely gotten dressed before Zack came charging into the suite like a maternally enraged gorilla.

"How dare you?" Zack screamed. "How _dare_ you? You were going to tell Maddie! You little shit – I was right, you do deserve to die!" He picked up a bowl and threw it at Cody. It smashed on the wall.

"I would never tell Maddie – we're brothers-…" Zack threw another bowl. "We're twins, Zack-…"

"Yeah…" Zack said through choked sobs. "And the fool I am, I thought that would mean something to you." He turned, tears rolling down his face, and closed the door quietly behind him as he left.

**A/N: Sorry, this chapter was only about 2 words longer than the last one...**


	3. Chapter 3

Carrie was thoroughly annoyed. The piano player had not turned up – _again._ She had packed up and was just leaving when a girl burst through the door. "You're not leaving are you?" the girl looked crestfallen. "I've been trying to hear you sing for _ages!"_

"Well, I'm sorry but my piano player has disappeared – it's almost as though he's been abducted by aliens!" The girl smiled sweetly.

"There's no such thing as aliens," she said. "But I could have a go at playing the piano…" She sat down and almost instantly; a beautiful music filled the room.

A few minutes later, Zack burst into the room suddenly. Carrie rushed over to her sobbing son and wrapped her arms around him. "Mom…I…Cody…he…I…" Zack trailed off into uncontrollable weeping.

"Oh my gosh!" the girl said, stony faced, showing no perceivable emotion. "Are you Ok?" Neither Zack nor Carrie were watching Kay, so they didn't see her smile when Zack shook his head on his mother's shoulder.

"Zack, this is…"

"Kay."

"This is Kay, Zack, and I've invited her over tonight, as she seems to be a great girl – you'll become the best of friends, I just know it!" Kay's upper lip curled in disgust as Carrie said this, but nodded when Zack looked up.

Cody's ears twitched as he heard the door open and he looked up to see his brother and Kay enter the room. Cody immediately blushed as he remembered his dream. His eyes shifted to Zack's bloodshot ones. Cody didn't need any 'twin telepathy' to know what Zack was thinking. _I hate you…_

"Hi Cody," Kay said, sitting down next to him smiling.

"Oh, so I suppose you've told _her_ too!" Zack said bitterly.

"Zack…" Cody stopped as he felt something squeeze his left buttock.

"I thought so…" Zack stormed into the bedroom, fighting back tears. Cody made to go after him, but Kay flung her arm across his chest. She put her finger to his lips as she moved forward to kiss him. Their tongues writhed around like a pair of electric eels, sending shockwaves of pleasure down Cody's spine.

Kay continued the kiss for what seemed like ages, and soon Cody felt like he would pass out if not from pleasure then the lack of oxygen. Suddenly Kay broke away, not even a little bit breathless. She smiled as she ran her fingers over Cody's abdomen and then slowly moved down to the waistband of his pants…

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I woke up at the sound of a grunt from next door. It took me a moment to remember why my pillow was tear-stained, and why I felt like shit. Suddenly it all came flooding back. I scowled as I checked my watch. It was at least four hours since I'd fell asleep, but I felt as though I'd just been running for four hours - not sleeping.

After a while, I decided to get up and blatantly ignore Cody and that she-devil of his. When I got to the refrigerator, I realised that the two weren't there. I felt slightly uneasy, though I knew there was no reason why they should stay here for four hours.

As I walked through the silent hallways, it occurred to me why I felt so edgy: I'd heard noises coming from that room moments before I'd entered it! I entered the lobby, which was also silent, but for the revolving doors creaking eerily. There seemed to be no one but me in the whole hotel.

This was starting to get really creepy, but it was about to get creepier. As my eyes wandered, they came to rest on a closet door that was slightly ajar. I walked slowly over, trying to control the amount of adrenaline pumping through my body. I reached out for the door. It opened slowly, oh so slowly, with ethereal creaks.

A horrifyingly putrid stench met my nostrils as the door opened. It reeked of old mothballs, and…something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. The closet was filled with old coats, but there was something else at the back.

I reached out to pull the coats back. My fingers twitched closer and closer to the sweater on the first row. I screamed and pulled back my hand as I saw blood splattered all over the sweater. A few moments later I realised it was just Maddie's Christmas present.

I pulled back the rest of the coats and saw something so shocking and revolting I can barely repeat it. A corpse was hanging from meat hooks at the back of the closet, and blood dripped silently to the floor. Maggots writhed and squirmed all over the putrid wreck of a body. Just looking at the carcass made me feel ill, so I slammed the door shut, breathing heavily.

Obviously (I figured), I was dealing with some depraved, psychotic killer, who'd killed or kidnapped everyone in the hotel, and probably strung them up like this poor man (well, it could have been a woman – it was so mangled up I couldn't really tell). The sicko had left me a note, too. He knew I was here, alone in this hotel, and he knew I'd find the note, so he probably knew exactly where I was, I reasoned. I picked up the note, absolutely shitting myself, and read the clear handwriting:

_It's all downhill from here…_


	4. Chapter 4

I forced myself to remain calm. It's surprisingly hard to do when you've just found out that there's a crazy psycho killer running around, but there you go. I kept my breathing steady as I turned away from the closet, and began to walk back to the elevator.

I felt the bile rising in my throat as I remembered the maggots writhing over the rotting corpse, but I pushed it out of my mind. I stepped into the elevator and pushed the button.

"Come on!" I muttered, not wanting to listen to the silence any longer, yet not wanting to make too much noise. As the doors slid shut, I suddenly felt trapped – like a bird in a cage. The walls seemed to close in around me, threatening to crush my body into paste.

I opened my eyes tentatively. The walls, it transpired, were not closing in. Even as I let out a sigh of relief, the elevator jerked, and I knew the cable had snapped.

As the elevator plummeted, for a brief moment I had a feeling of weightlessness. It would have been fun, if not for my impending doom. I let out a long scream, as the tiny capsule dropped 22 floors…

Cody blinked, as his surroundings slowly swam into view. He tried to remember where he was, and how he'd gotten there, but the last four hours seemed to melt into a single memory of bliss. And the source of this bliss slowly approached him.

Kay ran her hands through his hair slowly, and whispered into his ear. Cody had no idea what she was saying. All he knew was this was _good_. Kay embraced him tightly, and kissed his neck.

She squeezed him tighter, until nearly all the breath was crushed out of him, and she pressed her mouth to his, running her hands down his back. Cody was overwhelmed by the influx of sensations he was receiving, and began to slip out of consciousness. But Kay just squeezed tighter, and darted her tongue through Cody's open mouth. When he responded, she bit down. Hard.

Blood flowed freely down Cody's throat as he struggled to draw breath, and his sides began to bruise. "Mmmph!" Cody's muffled screams fell on deaf ears, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Suddenly, Kay released him, blood dripping from her chin. She smiled as Cody collapsed to the floor, and came over to kneel beside him. "Wasn't that amazing?" she asked, as Cody moaned from the floor. He looked up. Kay had seemed beautiful when he'd first met her, but now she almost looked obscene, with his blood dripping from her face.

Kay smiled and whispered softly "yes, it hurts doesn't it? But now you won't ever feel pain again. Ever." She repeated the final word with clarity in her voice. Without warning, she jumped on top of Cody, making him lurch forward and cough up blood. She rolled him onto his back, and ripped open his shirt. Then she kissed him deeply, this time without mercy.

I awoke from the terrifyingly graphic nightmare at once, only to find myself embedded in another. I was battered and bruised, with a broken nose and two black eyes, but I was alive. My dream had been terrible – almost real. I dreamt of what that girl – Kay – could have been doing to my brother.

It suddenly struck me that I was thinking of this girl as the murderer! What an absurd thought! I almost laughed at the incredulity of it all, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that's what she was. Call it a premonition, or twin telepathy, or something, but I knew it was true.

I heard a scream from nearby – outside the elevator – so I wrestled the doors open with all my might. There she was: that she-devil, harming my twin, hurting my brother, killing my Cody. I let out an inhuman roar, and launched myself at this disgusting, evil, malignant entity, and knocked her into the basement wall.

I immediately knew I'd killed her. Dark streaks of blood ran down the wall where her head touched, and her eyes were glazed over. "Cody," I turned smiling at my twin, "I saved ya bro!"

Cody stood up, also smiling, despite the many bruises and cuts across his body. But there was a coldness about his smile, and I knew I had not saved him even before his hand plunged into my stomach, and burst out of my back


	5. Chapter 5

My insides clenched as blood sprayed onto the wall behind me, and as my brother withdrew his hand, I collapsed onto the floor, barely breathing. "Cody…" I whispered, blood trickling from the corner of my mouth, and literally pouring out of my chest. There was a flicker of recognition behind those dull, lifeless eyes. "Cody…help me…"

"Oh my God – Zack! I'm so sorry!"

"Cody…I thought…thought I'd lost you…"

Cody grinned maliciously. "That's because you did!" he laughed insanely, and kicked me across the face, breaking my already bleeding nose. Blood spurted across the cold floor, but I barely noticed – most of the floor was already covered in my blood. "Your brother's dead, Zack!" My 'brother' said loudly. "And," he grabbed my wrist, "and, I _don't_ like being attacked," he said, punctuating each syllable with a twist of the arm, until the bone shattered and sharp spikes of pain ran up my arm.

"Cody…I was…was trying to save you…" fluid began to fill up my lungs, and each breath became harder. "I didn't…attack you…" The thing possessing my brother curled his upper lip, and stepped down on my crotch, simultaneously crushing my pelvis and several extraneous body parts, causing me to lurch forward in pain, before blacking out.

"Don't worry," Kay laughed snidely with my dead brother's lips. "I'll take care of this body as if it were my own…" and my world faded to black.

**A/N: I'm really not happy with this ending, so there will probably be a sequel at some point – or I could redo the end, if you would prefer that… **


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